Poland

In 2012 the Pol­ish National Health Fund (NFZ) is esti­mated to have saved as much as US $620 million on reim­burse­ment expen­di­tures, thanks to leg­isla­tive changes brought in under the Reim­burse­ment Act.

The Pol­ish phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal mar­ket con­tracted severely in 2012, owing to harsh pric­ing mea­sures and strict mar­gins imposed on whole­salers, phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal mak­ers and retail­ers. More­over, over the course of the year, the bur­den of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal spend­ing has shifted to the Pol­ish con­sumer as the strict reim­burse­ment regime has caused pri­vate con­tri­bu­tions to pre­scrip­tion pay­ments to rise. The Pol­ish mar­ket expects some growth in 2013, mostly dri­ven by pri­vate con­sump­tion, as the gov­ern­ment deepens its cuts to drug expen­di­tures.